SC dismisses Sahara plea for more time to deposit Rs 600 crore

NEW DELHI, Jan 12:
The Supreme Court today rejected business conglomerate rejected Sahara’s plea for more time to pay its dues, affirming that industrial magnate Subrata Roy Sahara would be sent to jail if the amount was not paid by February 6.
The bench, headed by Justice Dipak Misra and also comprising Justices R Gogoi and Arjan Kumar Sikri, held that the court has given enough indulgence to Roy and he will have to go to jail in case of default.
Sahara told the Apex Court that it was very difficult to raise the amount due to demonetisation which had badly affected the real estate sector & it was not able sell properties.
Roy was sent to Tihar jail on March 4, 2014, for not complying with the Apex Court’s orders in connection with a long dispute with the market regulator, Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI).
The SEBI alleged that Roy allegedly failed to comply with a 2012 Apex Court order directing him to return investors more than Rs 20,000 crore with 15% interest that his two companies Sahara India Real Estate Corp Ltd and the Sahara Housing Finance Corp Ltd had raised in 2007 and 2008 through optionally fully convertible debentures.
On May 6, last year, the Apex Court had granted four weeks’ custody parole to Roy to perform his mother’s last rites, Chhabi Roy, 95, passed away in Lucknow on May 6 last year after a prolonged illness for over three years.
Sahara, once one of India’s most high-profile firms, had in the past made several failed attempts to raise the bail money using its prized overseas hotels that include the Plaza in New York and Grosvenor House in London.
Sahara says it has paid more than 80 percent of the dues to the bondholders, but the market regulator, SEBI disputes that and contends that it has not paid more than Rs 10,000 crores. (UNI)